rs ins 

J5 
1120 



ra Congress 1 
2d Session ] 



SENATE 



{Document 
No. 234 



SURVEY OF PULP WOODS ON THE 
PUBLIC DOMAIN 



A LETTER FROM 

THE SECRETARY OF AGRICULTURE TO THE 

CHAIRMAN OF THE SENATE COMMITTEE ON 

AGRICULTURE AND FORESTRY 

UPON THE MERITS OF THE BILL (S. 3555) AUTHORIZING 
THE SECRETARY OF AGRICULTURE TO MAKE A SURVEY 
OF PULP WOODS ON THE PUBLIC DOMAIN AND TO PRE- 
PARE A PLAN FOR THE REFORESTATION OF PULP-WOOD 
LANDS AND APPROPRIATING THE SUM OF 
$1,000,000 FOR THESE PURPOSES 




PRESENTED BY MR. POINDEXTER 
FEBRUARY 25, 1920.— Ordered to be printed 



WASHINGTON 

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 

1920 



T$H73 



97 •t +. 

MAR JS 192Q. 






2G2?5" 



SURVEY OF PULP WOODS ON THE PUBLIC 

DOMAIN. 



January 22, 1920. 
Hon. A. J. Gronna, 

United States Senate. 

My Dear Senator: Receipt is acknowledged of your request of 
January 7 for a report upon the bill (S. 3555) authorizing the Secretary 
of Agriculture to make a survey of pulp woods on the public domain 
and to prepare a plan for the reforestation of pulp-wood lands, and 
appropriating the sum of $1,000,000 for these purposes. 

In substance, the measure would authorize the Secretary of Agri- 
culture to cause a survey to be made of the classes and kinds of timber 
existing on the public domain, including the national forest, Indian, 
and other reservations, and on private lands intermingled therewith 
which are suitable for pulp wood for newsprint and other forms of 
paper. The purpose of the survey is to determine the location, 
quantity, quality, and character of the pulp woods on Government- 
controlled lands and adjacent private lands and to determine as far 
as possible their availability and the most practical means for their 
utilization. Section 2 wouid require the Secretary of Agriculture to 
report to Congress upon the present conditions in this country in 
respect to the current consumption and protection of pulp woods, 
together with a plan for assuring a sufficient supply for future use. 
Section 3 would appropriate a million dollars to enable the Secretary 
of Agriculture to carry out the purposes of the act. 

This bill, in the opinion of the Department of Agriculture, offers 
the first real opportunity to get at the fundamental causes of the 
present and past difficulties connected with the production of news- 
print and other forms of paper, and to furnish the basis for a definite 
provision for the future. The following report deals especially with 
the newsprint situation and its bearing upon the advisability of the 
survey; for while the involved character of the industry and the 
involved relation in the uses of different classes of pulp and paper 
will make it necessary to cover the whole pulp and paper field in the 

Eroposed survey, I place first emphasis on the newsprint woods 
ecause they are absolutely necessary in supplying the press. 
Apparently the crux of the present newsprint crisis is in a shortage 
of paper-manufacturing facilities. The fundamental trouble, how- 
ever, lies far deeper; it lies in such factors as the overcentralization 
of the industry in the Northeast and the Lake States, now being 
heavily overcut, with little or no provision for continued timber pro- 
duction, and the almost total lack of development of the industry 
in the West and in southeastern Alaska, where there are still large 
supplies of timber eminently suitable for newsprint manufacture. 

As is well known, the use of wood pulp on a large scale for paper 
making is comparatively recent. Practically the entire development 

3 



4 SURVEY OF PULP WOODS ON THE PUBLIC DOMAIN. 

in the United States and elsewhere has taken place within the last 
50 years. Previous to that time paper was commonly made from 
rags, various plant fibers, straw, and reed. Wood pulp has displaced 
practically all of these materials, except in the better grades of paper, 
which are still made of rags or special plant fibers. 

The comparative importance of the various classes of paper and 
the place of newsprint in paper manufacture are indicated to a con- 
siderable extent by the amount of each that is produced. In 1914 
newsprint comprised 26 per cent of our total paper production in the 
United States and held first place, but in 1916-17 it had dropped to 
22 per cent of our total paper production of something over six and a 
half million tons and was second to "boards." Newsprint paper is 
used for newspapers and also in large quantities for catalogues, direc- 
tories, guides, handbills, cheap magazines, books, etc. "Board" pro- 
duction has increased greatly within the last five years, and in 1916— 
17 held first place with 30 per cent of the total paper production. It 
competes with newsprint for sulphite and ground-wood pulp. Board 
includes the coarse, heavy cardboards used for cardboard boxes, 
cartons, corrugated boxes and wrappers, wall board, display cards, 
shipping tags, and a wide range of similar products. Wrapping paper 
in 1916-17 made up about 17 per cent of our total production; book 
paper about 15 per cent; writing and building papers, a little more 
than 5 per cent each; and all other classes together, the remainder of 
less than 6 per cent. 

The total American production of wood pulp for 1918 amounted 
to 3,313,861 tons. This total was divided as follows among the four 
processes employed in the manufacture of wood pulp : 

Tons. 

Sulphate 142, 362 

Soda 350, 362 

Sulphite 1, 456, 633 

Mechanical or ground wood 1, 364, 504 

The sulphate process, the least important of the four from the 
standpoint of total output, as late as 1914 produced only slightly 
more than 50,000 tons. Almost any of the coniferous timbers can 
be used in the manufacture of sulphate pulp, a strong unbleached 
pulp, useful primarily for kraft or wrapping paper and high-grade 
boards. In the soda pulp process such hardwoods as poplar, birch, 
cottonwood, and basswood are used. The pulp produced goes pri- 
marily into book, writing, letter, and high-grade printing papers. 
Mechanical or ground-wood pulp, which is practically equal in amount 
produced to sulphite pulp, is used primarily in newsprint paper and 
in board. Sulphite pulp is also used in the manufacture of news- 
print as well as in a rather wide range of other papers, such as wrap- 
ping, book, printing, etc. Ground-wood pulp and sulphite pulp are 
used in the proportion of about 4 to 1 in newsprint. The former is 
used chiefly because it is the cheapest satisfactory pulp on the market, 
and the latter only in sufficient quantity to give the strength neces- 
sary for printing. 

Before the war ground-wood pulp cost about $14 per ton to manu- 
facture, and the chemical pulps approximately twice this amount. 
On a prewar basis newsprint paper sold for about $2 per hundred 
pounds, wrapping for $2 to $3, book for $4 to $6, and writing for $6 
to $16 and up. The low cost of newsprint made the cheap American 



SURVEY OF PULP WOODS ON THE PUBLIC DOMAIN. 5 

newspaper possible, and this in turn greatly stimulated the demand 
for newsprint. 

The rapidity as well as the regularity in the increase of newsprint 
consumption in the United States in the past should receive particular 
consideration as indicative of future requirements. In 1899 our 
consumption amounted to 569,000 tons. In 1918 it had increased 
to 1,760,000 tons, approximately 200 per cent, and almost regularly 
at the rate of 10 per cent a year. During the same period the popu- 
lation of the United States had increased only approximately 70 
per cent. The use of newsprint paper has been increasing, therefore, 
much more rapidly than the population. This is borne out by the 
fact that consumption in regions of densest population is far greater 
per capita than in regions of sparse population. There is no reason 
to anticipate decreasing future demands for newsprint. Any de- 
crease in the consumption rate will necessarily be due to serious 
shortage of supplies or prohibitive prices, and in any case can hardly 
be viewed without alarm, because newsprint paper has so thoroughly 
established its place in our economic life. The present situation is an 
example of the acute distress which is caused by any enforced curtail- 
ment. I regard the present exceptional demands, which are in part due 
to greatly increased newspaper advertising, as merely one crisis in a 
general movement which has been under way for several decades. 
Any solution of the problem which fails to take into account the 
regularity and amount of the past and probable future increased de- 
mands for newsprint paper will accomplish very little and will in- 
evitably result in a series of critical periods such as have character- 
ized the newsprint situation during the past few years. A normal 
and increasing demand can be met most satisfactorily by increased 
production. 

Before considering the extent to which the United States is supply- 
ing its domestic requirements, I desire to direct your attention to the 
importance of the country's being on an independent basis so far as 
newsprint production and the necessary raw materials are concerned. 
First, there is the question of price. If we are to be dependent upon 
foreign sources for either pulp wood or pulp or newsprint, the American 
consumer wall be at the mercy of the foreign manufacturer as to 
prices. Our industry will also be held under the continued threat of 
embargo, which, even now, is far from being a theoretical menace. 
All exports of pulp wood are prohibited from the colony of Newfound- 
land. The Canadian Provinces have prohibited the export of pulp 
wood from Crown lands, which form a very considerable extent of 
the timberlands both in eastern and western Canada. For a year or 
more American manufacturers have been apprehensive concerning 
the possibility of an embargo on all pulp-wood exports from Canada, 
and it would unquestionably be desirable to make the United States 
as nearly self-supporting as possible. 

In lumber the United States is still an exporting country, but in 
pulp wood and pulp we have become large importers. As late as 
1909 the United States produced its entire newsprint supply. In 
1919 we had become dependent upon foreign sources for two-thirds 
of our newsprint or its raw materials. Only one-third of the American 
newspapers issued in 1919 were printed upon the product of American 
forests. This startling change has taken place in 10 years. So far 
as timber supplies are concerned we are in a much worse position 



6 SURVEY OF PULP WOODS ON THE PUBLIC DOMAIN. 

than we were 10 years ago, and our consumption has increased 100 
per cent while our newsprint manufacturing industry has been at a 
standstill. 

It is important to consider briefly some of the factors which have 
led to our rapidly increasing; dependence upon foreign supplies and 
which have been responsible for the fact that but one newsprint 
plant has been constructed in the United States since 1909. 

The demand for a tough ground-wood pulp to hold to a minimum 
the use of the more expensive sulphite necessitated the use of long- 
fiber woods. Low prices forced the use of light-colored woods r 
which need little or no bleaching, and woods which can be reduced 
with comparative ease. The more resinous woods offer mechanical 
difficulties in newsprint manufacture which it has not yet been 
possible to overcome satisfactorily. These factors together have 
very greatly restricted the number of species which have gone into 
newsprint paper, and incidentally into all kinds of pulp and paper. 
Eighty-four per cent of the total pulp manufactured in 1918 was 
made from four species — spruce 55, hemlock 16, balsam 7, and poplar 
6. In the East these species occur chiefly in New England and the 
Lake States. The present overconcentration of the industry in the 
Northeast and the Lake States and the consequent serious overcutting 
of the timber in those regions is due in no small degree to this 
restricted use. 

An important factor which has tended to prevent the develop- 
ment of the newsprint industry has been its inability, as contrasted 
with the case of the lumber industry, to follow the timber. We have 
seen the lumber industry centralized first in New England, then suc- 
cessively in New York, Pennsylvania, and the Lake States, and now 
in the South, with the movement toward the Pacific Northwest, our 
last great timber reserve, well underway. This movement has fol- 
lowed the comparative exhaustion of the earlier timber supplies. 
Such a movement in lumber manufacture is made possible through 
the much smaller investment per unit of output in the lumber than 
in the pulp and paper plant. Roughly, an investment of $1,500 per 
thousand board feet of daily product is required in lumber manufac- 
ture, whereas the pulp and paper establishments require approxi- 
mately $50,000 per thousand board feet of daily consumption. Large 
investments have therefore tended to hold the industry in the region 
first established, primarily New England and New York, and timber 
has been hauled increasing distances to the manufacturing plant. 
A rail and water transport exceeding 500 miles is not now uncommon 
for American pulp mills. For the manufacture of ground-wood pulp 
cheap hydromechanical power is essential and may be the key to 
its possible manufacture. 

No other manufacturer using wood is so dependent as the pulp and 
paper maker upon long-time or permanent supplies of the right kinds 
of timber. Modern financing of pulp and paper mills asks from 30 
to 40 years' supply under control, but there should be a reasonably 
assured 100 years' or perpetual supply. When such supplies could 
no longer be found in New England and the Lake States the expan- 
sion of the industry stopped. Our dependence upon Canadian pulp 
wood indicated that in fact it was overdeveloped. We imported 
1,370,027 cords of pulp wood from Canada in 1918, and prices for 



SURVEY OF PULP WOODS ON THE PUBLIC DOMAIN. / 

wood which were about $10 per cord in 1916 reached as high as $25 
in 1919. 

Canada, by welcoming the manufacture of pulp and paper in her 
own territory, has absorbed North American expansion in newsprint 
production. The prohibition of export of pulp wood from Crown 
lands was primarily to force manufacture on Canadian soil, and the 
Canadian Government has encouraged the development of pulp and 
paper manufacture in other ways so successfully that in the 10 years 
preceding 1919 the number of pulp mills in Canada was increased 
57 per cent and the output increased manyfold because of the installa- 
tion of the most modern equipment, while our own industry was at a 
standstill. 

Prior to the construction of the Panama Canal, when eastern 
Canada was much more successful than the west to the large American 
consuming market in the Northeastern and Middle Western States, 
and when prices were at 2 cents a pound, the west coast product, 
with the long rail haul, could not compete with Canadian material. 
The period between the completion of the Panama Canal and our 
entrance into the war was too short to permit the development of a 
west coast industry. The general lack of authoritative information 
about western timber supplies and the economic conditions bearing 
upon successful manufacture probably all tended to retard develop- 
ment. 

Prewar prices of newsprint, as already indicated, averaged about 
2 cents a pound, which was much cheaper than other papers. There 
was probably a decided tendency on the part of American manu- 
facturers to turn to other classes of paper solely because of the oppor- 
tunity for greater profits ; and before the present period of high prices 
there was a decided drift toward other forms of paper manufacture. 

For these reasons, no attempt being made to weigh their com- 
parative value, there has been no growth in our newsprint industry 
since 1909, and we have been increasingly dependent on foreign 
supplies. The industry has remained stationary, centered very 
largely in the Northeast and the Lake States. Of the 865 pulp and 
paper establishments reported in 1918, fully 75 per cent are in the 
Northeast and in the Lake States. Thirty per cent of the newsprint 
manufacturing industry is ; n New England, nearly 50 per cent addi- 
tional in New York, and 15 per cent in the Lake States. There are 
the regions of our first and heaviest timber cuttings. The four 
species — spruce, hemlock, fir, and poplar — which furnish 84 per cent 
of the raw material, are being heavily overcut. Large areas once 
covered with pulp timber have been cut over and burned over and 
are now producing little or nothing. For New England and New 
York the meager information available gives every indication that 
at the present rate of cutting supplies will be exhausted within 20 
years. For New York alone the situation appears to be still worse. 
If the estimates given by industrial associations are accepted, sup- 
plies at the present rate of cutting will be exhausted in less than 10 
years, not considering the State lands upon which, to safeguard them 
for scenic and recreation purposes, cutting is prohibited by the 
constitution. 

Coincident with the centralization of the industry in the Northeast 
and Lake States, where the annual cut exceeds by two or three times 
the growth of the forest, there has been practically no development 



8 SURVEY OF PULP WOODS ON THE PUBLIC DOMAIN. 

in either the Pacific Northwest or in southeastern Alaska, where our 
largest remaining timber supplies suitable for news print are located. 
In these regions we have spruce, hemlock, and fir, which have been 
shown to be as suitable for news print as the eastern species. The 
forests of southeastern Alaska alone could probably supply one-half 
of our present news-print requirements if means could be found for 
developing an industr}-. 

During the time that our own news-print industry has been at a 
standstill the United States has become so dependent upon Canada 
that some consideration must be given the Canadian situation in 
connection with out own problem. It has been commonly believed 
that the supply of pulp wood in eastern Canada is inexhaustible. 
There has been a remarkable expansion in the Canadian industry 
during the past few years, and there is every reason to believe that 
it will continue to expand for several years to come. Unfortunately, 
the more that is known of the Canadian supplies the smaller they are 
found to be. The best information available indicates that at the 
present rate of cutting they will be practically exhausted in the east- 
ern Provinces in 25 years and that the beginning of the reduction 
in output will be keenly felt by the American consumer within a 
decade. The reduction, when it comes, will be felt first and most 
by the American consumer. The only Canadian Province where 
large expansion on a sustained basis can be expected is British 
Columbia, and even this may not be sufficient to offset the probable 
decline in eastern Canada. I understood that various agencies are 
seriously recommending in Canada a survey similar to that proposed 
in Senator Poindexter's bill. The facts, so far as known, all indicate 
that the United States can not permanently rely on obtaining in- 
creased supplies of pulp wood and news-print paper from Canada, even 
though that should be considered desirable as a matter of public 
policy. 

Prior to the war the United States was importing pulp from Europe, 
chiefly from Scandinavia. Imports of wood pulp from Norway and 
Sweden in 1913 were slightly in excess of 235,000 tons. The Scandi- 
navian exports were largely sulphite pulp, for which news print has 
to compete with boards and other papers. These imports were shut 
off during the war and the place of Norway and Sweden was taken 
by Canada. The forests of Norway have been very heavily overcut, 
and those of Sweden are being cut to the limit of their actual growth. 
There were large timber surpluses in the forests of the former Prov- 
inces of Russia, such as Finland, before the war, and there may be quite 
a large development of the pulp and paper industry during the next 
few years. In any consideration of Europe as a possible source of 
future news-print supplies, however, we must take into account the 
fact that we shall have to compete with several countries — Germany, 
which is far from self-supporting, England, France, and the south of 
Europe countries which produce little or no pulp, and with Aus- 
tralia, Asia, and South America. We shall undoubtedly be able to 
get some help from Europe, but it would be very unwise to depend 
on it to meet any substantial part of our requirements now or later. 

The substitution of pulp from some fiber crop for the present wood- 
pulp base of news-print is often suggested. The chief difficulty in 
the case of all fibers is that of sufficiently large production and col- 
lection of suitable raw materials to compete in cost or bulk with the 
enormous quantities of wood which can be secured per unit of area. 



SURVEY OF PULP WOODS ON THE PUBLIC DOMAIN. 9 

Up to the present time there has been no possibility whatever of 
such competition. Cotton linters would be one of the most promis- 
ing of such materials, but according to the best data obtainable their 
manufacture would cost at least twice as much as the manufacture 
of wood-pulp news print, and the whole available supply of cotton 
linters would be absorbed in the normal year's increased demand 
for news print. 

Since we can not depend upon substitutes or foreign supplies or 
our own industry as now developed, there are two alternatives 
before us. We may continue to allow the situation to take care of 
itself, with possibly some temporary makeshifts of a remedial charac- 
ter. In time private industry, if left to its own initiative, will 
develop pulp and paper manufacture in the Pacific Northwest and 
in Alaska. It is certain, however, that development will be com- 
paratively slow; that the necessary exploration can be undertaken 
only by the strongest financial concerns; that we shall face a con- 
tinued and increasingly serious newsprint shortage, and that the 
brunt of this shortage will fall upon the smaller and weaker news- 
papers, which will not be able to compete with the strong metro- 
politan press. We shall become more and more dependent upon 
foreign sources, with all that that may mean in the dictation of 
prices and the menace of embargoes. In the meantime, there will 
be no adequate knowledge of what our remaining timber supplies 
are, how rapidly the cut and destruction each year are being replaced 
in new growth, how far short of possible production the actual growth 
on timbered land is, what areas suitable for forests are now entirely 
waste and not producing at all, what the life of the industry will be, 
and finally, to what -the press and the public may look forward. 

The alternative is for the Government to recognize the serious 
character of the present situation and not merely as a temporary 
crisis but as an indication of a growing timber shortage and a serious 
overlocalization and underdevelopment of the newsprint industry 
as compared with our requirements, and to take the initiative in 
the development of a policy which will make the United States as 
nearly self-sustaining in newsprint production as our resources 
permit. To aid in meeting the requirements of the next 15 years 
this policy should : 

(1) Attempt the development of the industry in the Pacific North- 
west and in southeastern Alaska, where we still have timber, and 

(2) Develop plans for the perpetuation and increased production 
of timber not only in the West but also in the East, which is now 
being heavily overcut. 

1 1 will be necessary for the Government to take the initiative 
unless we are- willing to see the smaller and weaker newspapers 
crushed out in competition, unless we are willing to see the United 
States become still more dependent upon foreign control, and finally, 
unless in the course of 25 years we are willing to see all sources of 
newsprint, domestic and foreign alike, very materially reduced. 

While other kinds of timber than those used for groundwood and 
sulphite pulp and newsprint paper are not so important, there are 
other species and other pulps which should receive attention. For 
example, 142,362 tons of sulphate pulp were manufactured in the 
United States in 1918, and 75 per cent as much as this, or 109,393 
tons, was imported. Waste material of a number of species is 
entirely suitable for the sulphate process and enough waste material 



10 SURVEY OF PULP WOODS ON THE PUBLIC DOMAIN. 

is destroyed in the United States each year to supply the sulphate 
pulp requirements of the world. Here also is the possibility of 
working out methods by which the papers derived from sulphate pulp 
might replace those derived from the groundwood or sulphite pulps. 
I believe that the favorable consideration of Senator Poindexter's 
bill constitutes the logical preliminary step to the development of 
the pulp and paper industry in the West and in Alaska and to the 
preparation of a plan for the continued production of pulp timber 
in the East and West alike. Ji the measure were passed, the depart- 
ment now feels that the following plan would be productive of 
excellent results: 

1. Survey of pulp woods on the public domain and intermingled and 
adjacent privately owned lands to secure information on the kinds, 
amount, character, accessibility, etc., of the timber. This informa- 
tion should be secured with particular reference to the availability of 
the timbers and the most practicable means for their use in the manu- 
facture of pulp wood. In general, this phase of the survey should be 
extensive in character, but in the case of a limited number of areas of 
particular promise for pulp or paper manufacture more detailed data 
should be secured as a basis for early development. This phase of the 
survey should be confined almost exclusively to the north Rocky 
Mountain and Pacific Coast States and southeastern Alaska. 

2. As a basis for the preparation of the plan called for in section 2 
of this bill for assuring a sufficient supply of pulp wood for future use 
by reforestation or otherwise, the securing of supplemental informa- 
tion of a more general character for each of the important regions 
which are now or should be supplying pulp woods. This supplemental 
information should include for lands privately or otherwise owned 
data on the existing stands of timber as to quantity, acreage, condi- 
tion with reference to growth and production, and rate at which it is 
being cut, the acreage and contition of cut-over and burned and un- 
productive or only partially productive lands. Existing information 
from all available sources should be used and checked and supple- 
mented only as far as necessary as a basis for the plan. 

3. Intensive study of such other possibilities as the collection and 
repulping of newsprint paper and its reuse with the proper admixture 
of new sulphite pulp to secure strength and the greatly increased 
manufacture of sulphate pulp from some such resinous wood as south- 
ern pine in order to replace the sulphite and ground-wood pulp in 
wrapping and bag paper, containers, board, etc., thereby releasing 
spruce, balsam, and hemlock for newsprint. These and other ques- 
tions of a more or less similar character would have an important 
bearing upon insuring sufficient supplies of pulp wood for specific 
purposes such as newsprint. 

For the reasons given above the department recommends favor- 
able consideration of the measure, in the belief that it provides an 
opportunity for a real solution of the newsprint shortage, the most 
important and urgent of our present pulp and paper questions. 
Because of the large areas to be covered and the difficult problems to 
be considered, it is not believed that the work can be done for less 
than the amount specified in the bill. 
Very truly, yours, 

David F. Houston, Secretary. 

o 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 

iiiuiuiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiii 

O 018 370 788 7 • 



/ ■ 



/WO 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



018 370 788 7 



